Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1887-07-16
n. HOWELLS ON REALISM.
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q 40 Ne Wss'a's 0rssssse Wrsssss
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oo8 lSo8O 0OUtB0 uO0A usof0 oOoosT
)Ase more popular thsn nov. Every day
(k0u9h The season usually begins late, tho
nl1Gu1a aso alreody we'll nllsd and The cottages
- supidly being opened aud are assuming /
- quiOA home like appearance which pei- |
svodos the summer places here % notably - |
- NnrRose that the placid, beautiful lake |
4 S1ooAs IL soitsning spirit 10 all who place
fnNmsolves upon 10 shoreA A highly.
Vl1ooa addition TO recent arrivals 10 w. d.
Ilswslls the novelist and his wife, who
have ventured 10 break away fromAAe circle
= Dossonian resorts, and who are not sorry
tAsy have done 90 Mr.. Howslls occupies
thae long, low, rambling cottage on the sun.
~ side Of the lake, which was built BY and
We for many years the home Of Judge Ed.
mundA whose fame - Q spiritualist was
quite - great - his fame - jurist
The author OF Silas Lapham likes Lake
George called upon him yesterday, aud
found him with his family about him, seated
1Slt hat . white flannel shirt, and large
sasy pair Of curduroy trousorA He looked
the picture OF good health. Evidently he
he'd not :hunned the sunlight for his face
Are you contemplating any new literary
work, Mr.. Howells :" a,kod.
Yea have Just written the FIRST pages
Of new novel not yet announced. ] began
VIII y II Be S : % purely T American sscry, Il: chief
events conferred In . New England country
town, though It will relate to both city and
country life. l have not thought OF . name
for It, nor, though have Id plot pretty we'll
skstched out in my mind, should feel at
liberty TO detail II to you just now. The M.
ture OF my arrangement with the Hsrpers,
who have contracted with me for all write
leave with them the time and form Of my
extended announcement We shall not leave
Lake George before October, and by that
tune hope to have the book In fairly good
"How do you work here?"
There IL my little office" replied the
novelist pointing 70 little ono storied wing
of the house. "Win you look at it!"
II ha pretty room, with hard wood floor
With BOOK 4 picture q EincoIn, :fssr s thar
late reproduced In The Century, aud pictures
OF Tolstoi, Bjornson, Hawthorne and others
were on the walla A large fiat desk and
:everal easy chairs completed the rooms
al write here for about four hours every
morning after breakfast, 4" continued Mr..
Howelia "Yes, l become vastly interested
oour.s 90 there there are si%ss RSen feel %a @y.si III
unable to think and when II really pals on
me, but tn saas T. - lever every mans experience in
"There are very many beautiful Indian
islands and inlets all about here, Mr..
Howells ?" l ventured to suggest.
True the history OF Lake George 10 full OF
romance, but then, you know, look upon
prose narrative think that 1t 10 askina
good deal cf people In these buoy, practica
times, to 60 back with you for half dozsn
or more generations and to lose themselve
among strange customs and among strang
people in . stsanRe land. The public OF e
day AthfMk, feels that but little il to b
Gzined by such excursions into the past
knows where to go for history, and for 70
mances of the past IL has the poetA Tn
real sentiment Of today requires that th
novelist shall portray . section OF real life
that has IN II Q useful and animating purpose
All the good work Of our time is being done
on this theory.
"Then you do not regard the work of tn,
present English school Of romsncists, ..
good work.
~ regard the writings Of ths. school I.
NOTHING more than counter current 1t Il
no real tendency OF the timeA Every gres
current has its counter eddies and the ictior
OF the present day, which In pre-eminently
realistic, has its spssm OF romantic endeavor
just Is iu SCOTS day, when the sentiment rsr
universally toward romance and extravagsn
fiction, there we're ebullitions of realism., They
amounted to little They were entirely in
slgnificant as showing the feeling OF the age
They held to the century the same relation
asis now held by the essays of English 70
manCists.
In proof of this. Just glance at the work
which public sentiment has passed favorsbly
upon in all intelligent countries Russii
has led In the new school, and holds the fore
most place among the nations that have pro
duced great modern novelistA EnRisnC
stands at the very bottom Of the list Hardy
"a ~. great, ,l may y ~, say very great novelist
Howells and 1 have heard under our win
dows In England the very thoughts, yes, th
accents, which he had attributed to his Eng
lish peasantry. His truth and sincerity Or
admirable. And Black, too 20 far - hay
read him. Ii an able, skillful writer But tn
Russian novelists lead the world. Indeed.
affirm that Tolstoi occupies to ell fiction til,
asMe relation that Shakespeare occupies :,
All drama ae has very strong ethical sid'
lives It. He believes that men should liv,
precisely and literally as Christ lived, snt
abandoning literature, where at the summi
Of % nctlon. he has adopted the daily life Of !,
! remarked that that seemed like sim.
pliclty itself and received this retort
Isn't that because our civiliz alton ia AZ
.ophistics!ed we read and ssy we believe
imply that We scarce think he meant what b,
said about the conduct OF life 7"
Who do you think ranks next to Tolsto
as writer OF tictiol?"
"Iurgenieh "
'Do you mean to say that the creates
writer's OF fiction that the world has ever pro
duced are Russians ?''
+" Yes, think am prepared to ssy ius
that. The novels OF these men are absolute
truth. They are nature psred. They ar,
greatest because their writer's have tn,
ability and the courage to paint humsuit,
anu its affairs just ~ they are. That
regard u the highest art "
mere, then, do you place Dickens ?p
pCkehs was . man OF his tiines and n
ohiy ialr 70 him TO view hun in that iisht
lno ag0 Jnst before his was extrayaQantlv v ro
Inantlc. The work then done did moi mil
ssusiy the rapidly growing practical thouv6
OF Dickens time. One of the discovariss y
MS she WAS that while fiction sounded stiItsI
ana unreal when clad In the 9srb nj nnatrv
YET there were things In life quite ~ romsy
TIC a. any OF the paintings Of the poets III,
Russians, and the realistic schoni thev laaS
not only dispute this, but urge nm 6ct,n'
does not need the adventitiouS aid OF nnrS.
Imagination 70 give 1t permanent inisrss,
They contend that the daily life Of men An,
women with its thousand cares ana hons
and ambitions and sOrrows IL OF itself full I
tntereyt II any one dared 70 show 1t a
really H. without the slightest gloss OF drsy
ping, be would b giving out the most 3
~. How do yor answer the charge that re'
life 10 common place ,"
By asserting that the very things that q
not cOmmonplace are those commonly cslle
commonplace All the rest has long sinc
become hackneyed. In the prepo0teY0u
what IN there TO inventr Nothing, exceE
what u " prepolterOus ~ TO be ludicroua